Donald Sterling, who vowed to sue the NBA until the day he dies, filed a new legal action Tuesday in his effort to hang onto the Los Angeles Clippers, a lawsuit in which he asserted he is the only one who can determine the team's future.
The new suit, which was filed even as his attorneys were in a courtroom in the same building fighting to scuttle his wife's effort to sell the team, asserts that Sterling is the only shareholder in the corporation that owns the franchise. As a result, Donald Sterling contends that he alone has the power to sell the team.
Sterling named the NBA, league commissioner Adam Silver, his estranged wife, Shelly Sterling, and the corporation that owns the Clippers, LACBasketball Club Inc., in the suit.
The new suit by Sterling, who's under fire for his racially charged comments to an alleged mistress, is his latest effort to block the sale of the Clippers negotiated by Shelly Sterling, who accepted a $2 billion bid from former Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer.
Shelly Sterling took that step after removing her husband from decision-making authority in the family trust that held the shares of the team, a move she made after two doctors examined him and concluded that he was mentally incapacitated.
Then she went to court seeking a judge's confirmation of her right to do that, sparking the trial that is ongoing in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.
One of Donald Sterling's attorneys, Bobby Samini, denied that the new suit was simply a last-ditch effort to scuttle that deal out of fear that Sterling is going to lose the ongoing court fight.
"It has nothing to do with derailing the sale or not," Samini said. "I don't think we've been coy about this: We've always said we're going to fight and we're not going to sell the team. We're not the ones who filed the probate petition. They filed it. We started in this courthouse by their action. So we're not the ones running to court proactively."
But Samini also acknowledged that he believes the sale of the Clippers to Ballmer, which must be completed by Aug. 15 under the terms of the contract he signed with Shelly Sterling, cannot be concluded until the new suit is settled.
"I don't think you can have a sale until the issues in our corporate lawsuit have been adjudicated by a jury," Samini said.
Attorneys for Shelly Sterling and Ballmer already had left the courthouse when the clerk's office confirmed the filing of the new suit, but attorney Pierce O'Donnell released this statement late Tuesday:
"Donald's latest lawsuit is a frivolous, last ditch act of desperation by a
delusional, bitter man. This action shows once more how obsessed he is with
ruining a record-setting $2 billion sale of the Los Angeles Clippers — a sale that
would solve the problems his racist rant started three months ago. As
testimony established today, Head Coach Doc Rivers doesn't want to coach for
him, the players don't want to play for him, the season ticket holders are about
to bolt and the major sponsors aren't willing to spend another dime until
there's a new owner. As Clippers CEO Dick Parsons made clear on the witness
stand: Donald's continuing ownership will put the franchise into a 'death
spiral.'"
delusional, bitter man. This action shows once more how obsessed he is with
ruining a record-setting $2 billion sale of the Los Angeles Clippers — a sale that
would solve the problems his racist rant started three months ago. As
testimony established today, Head Coach Doc Rivers doesn't want to coach for
him, the players don't want to play for him, the season ticket holders are about
to bolt and the major sponsors aren't willing to spend another dime until
there's a new owner. As Clippers CEO Dick Parsons made clear on the witness
stand: Donald's continuing ownership will put the franchise into a 'death
spiral.'"
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